Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes is set for a tough weekend if it doesn't find a fix for its tyre problems.

The last high-speed circuit which was similarly punishing on the tyres - Barcelona - saw Hamilton drop from a grid slot of second to finish the race outside of the points. Hamilton said that Mercedes has been working on upgrades specifically designed to help improve tyre life, but he doesn't think the team will have made significant progress.

"I'm not really expecting us to have an easy weekend," Hamilton said. "We've not really made a huge step since Barcelona; the last couple of races have been a little bit easier on the tyres so we definitely have made a small improvement but I don't know if it's going to be good enough this weekend to come out ahead of the Red Bulls and the Ferraris. Time will tell. We definitely have some components that we've developed since Barcelona to help with the tyres so I'm hoping that they will help this weekend."

However, Hamilton said he is feeling confident that he has a car that is capable of pulling him back in to the title fight.

"We're even further behind Sebastian [than Fernando Alonso] and it's quite a big deficit so to catch that up is going to be very difficult, especially with the pace that they have. But we're not giving up, we're going to keep pushing and just push as hard as we can until the last race and the last opportunity we have. I feel positive; we're there or thereabouts, we're trying to make improvements. Those guys - Ferrari and Red Bull - are extremely quick but it's not impossible to catch them, at least that's what we believe so we're going to keep pushing."

Following the Rugby Football Union's announcement on Sunday that England Sevens coach Ben Ryan is set to relinquish his role, various past, present and future England internationals have taken to Twitter to praise him